Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 2)

by Caroline Peckham

  My face was becoming numb and my limbs heavy. If I didn’t get the Medusa antidote soon, I’d be paralysed. It usually lasted several minutes but with the dose I’d had, I’d be out for half a fucking day.

  By some miracle I made it to the bar before losing feeling in my legs, clutching onto it and dragging myself over the top of it, barely staying on my feet. We stocked the antidote right here. Plenty of people loved to be fucked under the paralysis of a Medusa. Although I knew I was close to the refrigerator I needed, my heart was thumping out of rhythm, my bones felt brittle and my muscles were wasting by the second. But what weakened me more than all that was the sound of Elise screaming.

  I turned to look for her, but found a man behind me, smiling demonically as he cornered me behind the bar and latched his hand around my wrist.

  I stumbled back, trying to conjure air, but my fingers wouldn’t move.

  Fuck no no no. Come on.

  Fire blazed in his free hand and he brought it toward my face as I clung onto the bar so I didn’t fall.

  “Say bye bye to that pretty face and all the skin on your body, Inferno.” He swung the flames toward me and I jerked backwards, losing my grip on the bar. His hand released me and I hit the floor. Something burning hot poured over my chest from above and I blinked up at the man now sprawled over the bar, blood rushing from him in torrents from a gaping wound in his neck.

  Elise leapt over him, landing beside me. A broken bottle in her hand was smeared with blood but I couldn’t conjure the smile I wanted to give her. My face was jarring, my lips barely able to twitch. My body was succumbing to the coma and I knew that meant I only had a certain amount of time until I was found and killed by the Brotherhood.

  “Get…out…of…here,” I forced my tongue to work.

  Elise dropped to her knees, panic flashing through her gaze as she eyed the many snake bites marring my skin. “I’m not leaving.” She lifted her hand to heal the bites but I managed to shake my head half an inch.

  “Anti…dote. Re-frig-er-ator,” I said, my mouth feeling like it was full of cotton wool. I rolled my eyes sideways to look straight at the silver refrigerator at the far end of the bar.

  Elise gasped, keeping low as magic flashed and exploded overhead. She scrambled toward it, whipping the door open.

  The battle was raging on beyond the bar but it didn’t look like anyone else had seen us come this way. I just had to hope our luck would last.

  Elise darted back to me, rolling my head to one side and jamming a needle into a vein in my neck – trust the Vampira to know where to find that.

  The antidote flooded through my body like ice melting in my blood. I could feel it spreading into my frozen limbs, my numb face. But it could take minutes to work and we could be discovered at any second.

  Elise tried to heave me along to somewhere safer but without her Vampire strength she couldn’t do it.

  “Go,” I begged as my tongue loosened just enough to release the word.

  She knelt down beside me, her jaw set stubbornly. “And let the Brotherhood kill my Storm Dragon? I don’t fucking think so.”

  “Yours?” I sighed, sensation returning to my lips so I could manage a cocky smile.

  She rolled her eyes, but there were tears of relief rimming them too. “Mine,” she confirmed, her fingers locking around my hand. “Now hurry up and get the feeling back into every muscle in your damn body.”

  “I think my dick’s working again, can you check?” I croaked.

  “This is so not the time for jokes, Dante,” she hissed, lowering down and covering me like a shield as a loud bang rang out in the room.

  I waited, frustrated to my core as my body slowly regained feeling.

  Finally, I pressed Elise back and rose to my knees. The club had grown disturbingly quiet and I shifted forward to peek over the edge of the bar.

  I stifled a snarl as I spotted Ryder standing beside his second in command, Scarlett Tide, their backs to me as they stared down at the twenty or so members of the Oscura Clan they had lined up on the floor on their knees. I tried to spot my uncle Felix amongst them, but he was either dead or he’d run for it.

  My gut frayed as I lowered back down behind the bar, drawing Elise closer to me by the arm and whispering, “A morte e ritorno, carina. To death and back.”

  “This is a transaction!” I called out to the quivering strippers and bar staff on the floor at my feet. There were two Oscura Clan members amongst them. I knew them by their faces since Scarlett had ripped off all of their masks. “Your leader’s life for yours. Tell me where he is. And if you breathe a single fucking lie in my direction, I’ll have no mercy.”

  Three of the strippers were hugging and silently sobbing together. I nodded to one of my men and he dragged them apart, keeping them in line. I wouldn’t be fooled by tears and weakness. If they were touching, magic could pass hands, weapons too.

  No one answered my request and I hissed, stepping forward and making everyone flinch. I walked down the line, taking my time as I approached the nearest Oscura Clansman. His eye was blackened and one of his arms was pissing blood, but his gaze held a fire in it that said he wasn’t done fighting. He raised up on his knees as I stopped before him, his shoulders pressing back and a growl rumbling through his chest.

  “You got something to say, scum?” I snarled.

  He spat at my feet and I smashed my fist into his face, breaking bone on impact. I swallowed his pain as the blow ricocheted up my arm and his agony seeped into my blood.

  “If I don’t get an answer in five seconds, I’m going to start detaching limbs.” I cracked my neck, my hunger for pain growing into a tangible need.

  “Five…four…three-” The Oscura at my feet dove at me with a cry of rage. He slammed into my chest, but I was ready, my hand splayed across his stomach to cast sharp daggers of wood into his flesh.

  He choked and I drank from his pain, his eyes locked with mine as the shards dug deeper, driving into his body until they found his heart. He jerked and went limp and I let him fall to the ground.

  A small blade was protruding from my shoulder and I yanked it out with a breath of pleasure.

  I glanced at Scarlett, drawing in a heavy breath as I spotted the other Clan member lying dead at her feet, frozen in ice.

  “Fuck,” I gritted out. Because now we were only left with civilians. Even if they were employed by the Oscuras, that made them pretty fucking useless. If they knew where he was, they would have given him up by now. Of course…there was always the chance one of them was being overly loyal.

  “Where is-” I spluttered, the air in my lungs suddenly vanishing. Everyone before me held a hand to their throats too alongside all of my men. I moved up and down the line, hunting for the perpetrator, but no one had made a move. I turned my head, scouring the bar as the first of my men fell unconscious. The civilians started to pass out too and I started stalking through the club, kicking chairs aside, ripping down curtains and breaking tables to try and find who had stolen the air from the room.

  By the time I was done, everyone was on the ground. My pulse thudded a slow beat, my snake abilities combined with my training keeping me awake the longest. And I’d fucking still be standing by the time I found who’d done this. There was no chance in hell I was going to be murdered while I was out cold.

  Fucking coward, I’ll break you one bone at a time.

  Scarlett gave me a desperate look from the floor before her eyes fluttered closed.

  Someone’s weight collided with me and I stumbled before throwing a hard punch in their direction. Dante shitting Oscura came at me with a wild look in his eyes. He locked one of his powerful arms around my throat, yanking backwards to try and bring me to the ground.

  “Co-ward,” I croaked through my lack of air and his eyes narrowed.

  “And where’s your honour, pezzo di merda? You took our Order forms and attacked innocent people!” He threw me into the edge of the stage and a small shadow caught my eye, hurrying toward
the civilians I’d captured.

  Dante came at me again, claiming my attention once more and I released a wave of earth magic to make the ground rock beneath his feet. He managed to launch himself back at me, throwing a fist into my face.

  The pain blossomed across the bone and a dark smile pulled at my lips. His other hand remained raised as he kept the air from flowing into my lungs. I blinked away the darkness drawing in around me, casting a web of vines to tangle around his legs. He crashed to his knees and I booted him in the head so his pretty face poured blood.

  Fae were moving in my periphery and I stole the chance to look over at my captives. My eyes found Elise like a magnet was dragging me toward her. The strippers were darting away from her as she gave them air, waking them and telling them to run. Half had already made it to the exit, peeling up the stairway.

  Dante threw his arms out as he noticed where my attention lay and I was thrown back with the force of a vortex, skidding across the stage and catching one of the poles to stop my momentum.

  His magic faltered and I sucked in a lungful of oxygen. I rose to my feet with triumph burning through me. Dante’s jaw was set as he raised his fists to fight me. But his magic was out. He was nothing but a hollow tree I was about to cut down.

  I stalked across the stage as Elise encouraged the last of my captives from the room. Then she turned to us with a look of horror in her eyes as Dante hoisted himself up onto the stage to meet me.

  “I’ll give you one minute without me using magic,” I told him. “I want to feel your bones crack under my bare hands.”

  “Stupido bastardo,” he laughed, wiping the blood from a deep cut beneath his eye, but it kept coming.

  I closed the distance between us, raising my fists. A broken spotlight fell from the ceiling and exploded into pieces beside us. Neither of us even blinked. I would never admit it, but Inferno was the only worthy opponent I’d ever had, even if he was a lowlife piece of Oscura shit.

  I let him make the first move and he drove a solid punch into my gut that sent a wave of delicious agony through my ribs. I bashed my fist down on his skull before my elbow rammed into the soft flesh of his kidney.

  His teeth sunk into my shoulder and I wrenched his head sideways before smashing my forehead against his. He stumbled back and I blinked as blood poured into my eyes, the attack having injured us both. It dripped onto my lips and I tasted my own pain as it tangled with his in the air.

  Dante came at me in a tackle, his arms locking around my waist and uprooting me in a fierce move. My back hit the floor and I let my arms fall beside me as he threw punches at my face while I laughed and fucking laughed. The more pain he delivered me, the more my magic reserves filled. I’d let him have his fun then I’d rip him into ten pieces and leave him on this stage to rot.

  “Stop!” Elise’s voice reached me, my ears still ringing from the blows Inferno had landed.

  I stopped taking the pain and started delivering it instead. I tugged a razor blade from my sleeve and punched his gut, his arm, his chest, cutting fast before he realised how badly injured he was.

  Elise was suddenly behind Dante, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him backwards.

  She’d been here tonight with him. And that thought alone built acid in my gut.

  “Lend me your power,” Dante begged of her, blood seeping through his shirt in crimson patches. “And heal me so I can finish him.”

  “No!” Elise practically screamed. “Don’t hurt him.”

  I swallowed a mouthful of blood, staring up at Elise with my chest squeezing like it was in a vice.

  “Give me your power!” Dante pleaded and I took the opportunity to get up, rolling my neck.

  “I’ve got hardly anything left,” she said, panic shining in her gaze as she eyed his wounds.

  “Your minute without my magic is up, Inferno. Stand back, Elise.” I let two ropey vines grow in my palms, preparing to wrap one around Dante’s throat and end our lifelong hatred for each other in death. Though tonight had been a fucking disaster, at least I’d be free of our feud. My father would be proud of me for killing the son of the man who’d finished him.

  Elise suddenly leapt between us and I was reminded of the day on the beach when Dante and I had struck our deal over her. But this wasn’t on academy grounds and I had the upper hand. It was an opportunity I wasn’t going to miss.

  She moved forward, her eyes burning with an endless fire as she cupped my bloodied cheeks.

  “Don’t follow us,” she breathed, before slamming a blast of air into my body that sent me flying across the room. I smashed into a table and it broke beneath my weight, leaving me in a pile of shattered wood.

  I leapt to my feet, spotting them running through a curtain beyond the stage hand in hand.

  This plan was a fucking failure, but while I still had air in my lungs, I’d try to finish what I came here to do. There was a chance I’d find him before the FIB showed up.

  I started sprinting across the room, tugging a jagged piece of wood from my arm. Every part of my body ached, but it only fuelled me on as I ripped the curtain aside and took chase.

  There were rooms lining the hall and I kicked open the doors of every one of them as I made my way down the corridor.

  If I find you, it’s fucking game over, Oscura.

  I yanked on Dante’s hand, trying to make him move faster despite the blood streaming out of his wounds. He stumbled, banging into a wall and smearing it with blood as he started coughing.

  “Fuck. Come on, come on,” I urged, pulling him again.

  “Just go, bella,” he wheezed. “It’s my fault you’re here. You need to run.”

  “Of course I’m not running,” I growled, looking back over my shoulder at the darkened hallway.

  In the silence that followed us, I could make out the sound of doors banging open beyond the last corner we’d taken. Ryder wasn’t giving up and I had no fucking idea what he’d do if he caught up to us again. The only thing I was sure of was that I wasn’t leaving Dante here. “Your car’s in the alley out back, we just have to get out there.”

  Dante grunted, forcing his feet to keep moving, but he wasn’t going fast enough.

  “That’s it,” I encouraged. I’d never appreciated my gifts like I did in that moment when I couldn’t access any of them. If I’d had use of my Vampire speed and strength I could have slung him over my shoulder and run us all the way back to the academy. Without them I was left painfully aware of just how fucking big Dante Oscura was and how much all that damn muscle weighed.

  “Are you gonna run from me like a coward?” Ryder yelled from somewhere behind us.

  I heaved Dante’s arm around my shoulders and gritted my teeth as I dragged him through the closest door.

  I squinted at the darkened space, cursing the poison that had stolen my gifts for the thousandth time.

  Dante coughed again and blood splattered my hand where I held him. I lifted my fingers to my mouth but there wasn’t a drop of magic in his blood, even the taste of thunder was missing and I’d used up the last of my own magic to get Ryder away from us.

  His shouts got closer in the corridor we’d just escaped and I dragged Dante further into the room.

  “Kitchens,” Dante wheezed just as I bumped into a counter.

  “Okay. And is there a way out through here?” I asked, supporting almost all of his weight as we began to skirt the counter.

  Dante groaned and collapsed beside me. I tried to hold him up but I was almost dragged down with him.

  My heart thundered with panic as I dropped down next to him, my hands fumbling over his blood soaked skin.

  “Dante?” I whispered.

  He didn’t respond but my fingers found a wound on his side which pulsed blood in time with his heartbeat.

  I grabbed the hem of my dress and ripped a strip of material from it, winding it around his waist and cinching it tight to stem the bleeding. My eyesight was slowly adjusting and I could just make out th
e lines of his face in the dark.

  A loud bang came from the corridor outside and I looked around in alarm as Ryder drew closer.

  “Fuck, fuck!” I slapped Dante in an attempt to wake him up and he growled as he came to. I slapped him again.

  “Ahi che male!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll che male your ass if you don’t fucking move it,” I hissed. “C’mon, Dante, show me some of that Dragon iron.”

  “Alright, bella, but only because you asked so nicely,” he ground out.

  He caught the edge of the counter and heaved himself up, a hiss of pain escaping him as he did so.

  “Okay,” I breathed, relief spilling from me as he started moving again. “Good. Which way is out?”

  Dante grunted, pointing to the far corner of the room.

  “Come on then big boy, I need you to help me.” I caught his arm and slung it over my shoulders as I set my gaze on that corner.

  Dante grunted again as he clung to me and we took staggering steps towards the far side of the room.

  The warm wetness of his blood was seeping through my dress where he was pressed against me and fear coiled in my gut at just how badly he was hurt.

  “Come out, coward!” Ryder bellowed from the corridor behind us.

  Dante stilled and my heart leapt.

  “He’ll kill you, Dante,” I hissed, tugging on his arm. “It’s not cowardly to want to live. If you stay here you’re just waiting for death. Do you want to die?”

  His gaze fell on me, a heavy frown lining his brow. “No, amore mio.”

  “Good. So move.”

  I found some small reserve of strength and heaved him along again, relieved when he let me.

  My hand met with the door in the corner of the room and it swung away from us so suddenly that I stumbled. Dante’s weight was too much for me to take on one leg in a stiletto heel and I cursed as we both fell forward, hitting the rough carpet hard on the far side of the door.

  Dante growled something in his language and managed to roll his weight off of me.